Dog Ways

11/01/2026

🐾 Are you looking for a Home Boarder, Kennels or Cattery? 🐾

Every once in a while, we're asked if we offer Home Boarding, or Board-and-Train services, or whether we can refer our own clients onto a reputable company that offers Home Boarding for their beloved pets.

All Home Boarders (as well as catteries and kennels) must be licensed by the local council, and have undertaken rigorous welfare checks. A list of all local (Blackburn, Darwen, and the parts of Bolton that are technically Darwen) Home Boarders can therefore be easily found on the BWDBC website here: https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/licences-and-permits/lists-and-public-registers/animal-welfare-licence-register

We also have recommendations for Home Boarders outside of the BWD purview, so if you don't mind travelling a little further afield for a great Home Boarder, just drop us a message.

The rules are a little different for Pet Sitters, who will come to your own house and stay with your pet in your own home, but as a minimum you should be looking for somebody who is Canine (or Feline, if looking for a cat sitter) First Aid trained, can provide a relatively up to date DBS (they're essentially out of date as soon as they're issued, but the more recent, the better!) and your prospective Pet Sitter should NOT agree to any sitting services until they've been out to visit you and your pet(s) in your home at least once. Some Sitters will charge for this initial visit service, others won't, but don't take on anybody who doesn't offer meet & greet. Ideally they'll also be able to provide testimonials from previous clients.

And remember - if something doesn't feel right to you, just walk away. Don't compromise on your pet's welfare or happiness.

Feel free to share if you have family/friends looking for any of these services 🐕🐈‍⬛🐾

11/01/2026

We had a stunning day for scentwork yesterday 🥰

First up in tracking class, Jude and Burt continued with their individual progression goals, working at precision and article indication. Very challenging, given that the ground was frozen solid making this a little more akin to hard surface tracking. Both dogs did amazing work with minimal loss of focus despite the distraction of both sheep and golfers!

After an al fresco lunch in the sun, Jude and Burt continued with scent detection, where they along with regulars Betty and Caleb were joined by gorgeous spaniel duo Eric and Violet, who came for a fun scent session while on their holiday. We switched all dogs to working on Kong, with the regulars sizing down to 3mm pieces, and the newer dogs working on whole Kong hunts. It may look obvious to us, but dogs don't see red like we do, so it really challenged their noses in an environment full of delicious horsey smells 😇

On the second class, regulars Boudie, Kali, Grace, Sassie and Millie worked on the same exercises, scaling down to 3mm Kong pieces. We focused on precision indications, and inducing calmer search work to some very excited dogs. It's easy to see from the pictures that even when the dogs execute a perfect freeze indication, their entire body grows still and all sniffing ceases - but the tails will often keep wagging, a sign of how much they're having doing an activity that they love 💕

All regulars went home with two new scents to imprint, so that we can start to work the dogs on an even wider variety of odours whilst engaging my scientific musings 🤣

Looking forward to next week already!

05/01/2026

The first of our 2026 mantrailing skill-up workshops kicked off yesterday with Indoor Indications.

It's not often we have the chance to work the dogs indoors, and when we do we're often dodging members of the public, so it was a great opportunity to work in a private venue with plenty of hiding places.

Teams Bella, Boudie, Homer, Grace, Indie, Sassie, Millie and Kali did an exceptional job throughout the session. Some of the dogs had never done door indications before, while some had predominantly done external or vehicle doors.

It was a tricky ask, as the contamination of the venue increased throughout the day. We explored not only the contact odour that's left behind when somebody touches a door handle, but also how scent may move through a door that somebody is hiding behind compared to one they've simply passed through, and how this can influence where exactly a dog indicates on a door. As we saw the strongest source of odour was not always the handle!

The dogs also had chance to do a little decoy work, another tricky exercise in an area heavily flooded with scent. We saw a marked improvement in all the dogs' indications between the first and second trails into the building.

To beat the snow, we dashed away at the end, so handlers can expect their first certificates of achievement to be handed out when we next see them 🙂

Huge thanks to our host for allowing us to use their venue!

04/01/2026

Saturday's Scent Detection class saw teams Boudie, Caleb, Betty, Burt and Sassie stretching their legs in the paddock as we focused on gun oil soaks.

The aim was to see whether using a soak would make it easier or harder for the dogs to locate the hide than using a container.

Interestingly, most of the dogs found one particular hide in the wall quite challenging, and the high finds that we expected to be tricky were located quite easily by all height of dogs!

The item searches were a joint mission in scentwork and proprioception for some of the teams 🤣 3D sniff-work is good for challenging the dogs to approach obstacles from different directions to pinpoint the scent.

Lovely work from everyone, and some great use of offlead searching skills!

04/01/2026

It's been a full-on two days of scentwork this weekend!

On Saturday, Tracking dogs Burt, Jude and Indie worked on some individual goals including item indication. Three very different dogs, but fab work from all including the handlers 🤩

In Tracking, we teach the dogs to follow a 'track' of ground scent left by their human, and to find items dropped/placed along the way. We aim for steadiness and accuracy, pairing nose work with brainwork.

Due to the need to lay sometimes long and complex tracks, it's an activity that requires quite a lot of open space, and we're extremely grateful to our host Adventure Neighground for allowing us to come and take over half their fields every Saturday 💜

23/12/2025

The belated pics from our Saturday scentwork special workshop - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree 🎄

The aim of the session was to see how many novel items the dogs could locate, using a mixture of Kong, gun oil and catnip depending on the individual dog's abilities.

Between them, teams Tully, Boudie, Grace, Burt, Sassie, Betty and Bonnie found...

🎄 50 baubles
🎄 8 tinsels
🎄 18 candy canes
🎄 7 homemade crackers

Resulting in one very decorated tree! 🤩

An amazing mix of indoor and outdoor searching from all the teams... We had some very happy-tired dogs by the end of the day 🐶😴

21/12/2025

The run up to Christmas is always a fun time for our doggie clients as we plan in a variety of different themed workshops. First up this week was a full day of mantrailing on our Advent themed workshop at Bowley Scout Camp!

Teams Winnie, Bella, Homer, Molly, Boudie, Pixie and Sassie managed between them:

🎄 To open 19 doors of the Advent Calendar
🏞️ To trail across 10 miles of muddy, challenging terrain
🚙 To cover a variety of trail types, including vehicle finds, door indications, split trails, covered finds, raised finds, split starts and novel (bauble) scent articles
🐾 To work through a LOT of contamination
🍗 To devour 34 pots of food rewards 😋

We got super lucky with the weather, and the handlers had a bunch of snacks in the den to keep them well fueled between trails. Safe to say the dogs enjoyed themselves immensely, and had minimal public distractions which allowed the handlers to really focus on observing their dogs' body language while working.

An excellent end to our 2025 mantrailing adventures, made even more fun by a great bunch of people 💜

14/12/2025

Saturday's Scent Detection class saw teams Blaze, Burt, Boudie and Sassie working gun oil finds in the stables, while Betty focused on outdoor searches and had to contend with some windy conditions making the hides trickier to locate.

Millie and Kali returned after an 18 month break and picked up searching again right away as they focused on hunting down Kong in the stables.

Great to see all the dogs working hard and enjoying themselves throughout the session 🥰

13/12/2025

This morning's scent classes started off with a tracking session for Jude and Willow.

Despite the crows and seagulls 🐦‍⬛ doing their best to eat the dogs' rewards, they both did an amazing job at remaining focused and on track.

Jude tackled a number of turns before ending with a hard surface track, while Willow handled some longer tracks with only food rewards at the end.

Excellent job by both dogs! 🤩

13/12/2025

So glad I took the extra time and effort to build internal doors/escape hatches into my van dog crates!

Put Willow in the back this morning ready for tracking class, arrived at the Adventure Neighground, back door would not open 😱

Enlisted the aid of the builder on site (and his crowbar) but still no joy. If it wasn't for the internal doors, Willow would still be stuck in there now.

Van dropped off at the mechanic, hopefully they can just remove the door and not have to dismantle my built in crates 😭

And of course it happens right before Christmas, when I need my van more than ever 😓

Definitely having a stress drink tonight!

12/12/2025

Have you got your dog's Christmas activity booked yet? 🎄

We have two spots left for Christmas mantrailing on Thursday 18th at Bowley Scout Camp, full day of festive shenanigans and food: https://bookwhen.com/dogwayslancashire/e/ev-sk30h-20251218083000

Also two spots left on our Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree scent detection special at the Adventure Neighground on Saturday 20th, a mix of indoor/outdoor scentwork and a festive lunch: https://bookwhen.com/dogwayslancashire/e/ev-sjc23-20251220090000

The mantrailing day is suitable for all teams who have undertaken an introduction session previously, and the scent detection event is suitable for dogs who are already searching for a minimum of either Kong, gun oil or catnip.

Themed events are always tons on of fun for both dogs and humans 🤩

Take the first steps on your Dog Ways journey... About Dog Ways

10/12/2025

Last night's mantrailing teams worked super hard in some very challenging conditions. As well as a warm and very windy evening, there was a fair amount of human and canine contamination in the working area

Despite the challenges, teams Kali, Bella, Homer, Albie and Millie did a great job and finished on a high note. Well worth playing out for 🤩